Not Only a Virtual Assistant, but a Virtual Staff

Here’s the situation: You’re a busy entrepreneur in desperate need of support.  This week alone you need assistance with the following:

• Identifying targeted, qualified research for a proposal you’re submitting.
• Blogging and marketing guest posts to promote your social media efforts.
• Keeping up with the constant stream of emails.
• Cleaning up your out of date CRM system and getting all your business cards and contacts entered.

Question: Can a single VA help? Is there one person who is skilled in ALL of these areas and can manage all tasks and projects at once?

Here’s the answer – you can hire a team of VAs!

I work with a client in California who runs a medium sized property evaluation firm.  When he approached Secretary in Israel, he expressed a need for support in many areas. As I interviewed with him, the conversation grew organically and we realized that the most financially efficient solution was to hire a team of VAs, managed by one person (that’s me, Susan).  This way, he benefits from each team member specializing in their area of expertise, and doesn’t overpay for any of the tasks required.  Our team of three part-time assistants consists of a data entry clerk, a scheduling and travel manager, and a content creator.

Here’s how it works:

Our client only has one person to contact – me, the Team Manager.  Since I’m tasked with both management and delegation, he trusts me to assign the right task to the right person based not only on skill but also financial feasibility. That is, he is paying each VA hourly, at their level of expertise.

As Team Manager, I monitor the assignments and if a problem arises, the team members work together to find a solution.  In addition, I carefully monitor everyone’s time so that we can be sure that we are working within the client’s budget.

With three team members all coordinating different projects, I decided that it would be beneficial to meet with our client once each week.  After researching several online meeting formats, I decided to implement Google Hangout  – it’s a free, user friendly tool that works consistently for all of us.  Having a weekly “hang” is also more cost efficient for our client, considering it’s ultimately more time consuming for all of us to have conversations electronically rather than simply meeting “live” once weekly and getting on the same page.

In addition, we use Sharepoint as a collaboration tool.  I researched and recommended a skilled Sharepoint developer who set up the site for us and customized it for my client’s needs.  Now, each project we work on gets its own site and each of us is assigned tasks that can be monitored as the project progresses.

As Team Manager, it’s my responsibility to report progress, and to keep our client abreast of challenges.  I am in constant in touch with my fellow VAs, so we can solve problems together and present the client with a meticulously completed task, in record time.

We know that the client feels confident that we have his back – we are all available to him for last minute crises as well as long term projects, and with three of us, someone is always on call to answer.

So, think about it – hiring a team makes sense in many ways, including cost efficiency.  Best of all, it can relieve you of all of your administrative burdens with just one phone call.

Submission by Susan